Hill, Hayes energy Pirates to collection sweep over Playing cards

PITTSBURGH — The Pirates didn’t want a lot time to place their May struggles behind them.

With a 2-1 win on Sunday at PNC Park, the Pirates’ win streak reached 5 and it was the primary sweep of the Cardinals in a three-game collection since late April in 2018.

After the bullpen mixed to pitch 5 innings on Friday and 7 innings on Saturday, Rich Hill made life a tad simpler by permitting only one run and 4 hits throughout a season-high 6 2/3 innings with six strikeouts. The Cardinals had some visitors on the bases within the first couple innings, however after strolling Paul DeJong to start the fourth inning, Hill started a stretch of retiring 11 consecutive batters.

As the Pirates have begun to warmth up, so has Ke’Bryan Hayes, who notched his second three-hit recreation of the collection with a trio of singles. Coming into this collection in opposition to the Cardinals, Hayes solely had one three-hit recreation the whole season.

Hayes struggled for a lot of May, ending the month with a .570 OPS throughout 101 plate appearances, however over his previous 4 video games, the third baseman is 9-for-16 with a double, a triple, two house runs and 7 RBIs. With the go-ahead three-run house run on Friday and a solo house run on Saturday, Hayes homered in back-to-back video games for the primary time in his profession.